Man vs Machine

When will machines replace humans professionaly? Or how far will they reach regarding what?will be left of the human presence in the near future.

Recently i had the opportunity of being in a round table with professional of HR Talent about recruiting, when one speaker refered to a very curious answer to the question: “What will be the future in the recruiting area?” Which he answered: Instead of psychologists, we will have data engineers.

Thruth be told the digital age, robotics and data management have arrived and are here to stay, whether for comercial purposes, operations or even for people organization and people management.

Regarding recruitment, as a joke, I often say that the databases of Google or Amazon are much more substantial and contain far more information than a candidate's resume, such is the competitive advantage that these companies have in all the datas in their portfolio that it can define a consumer profile, with traits of behavioral and consumption trends the individual can have. In the same line of thought it can be applied to a candidate profile.

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Will this be the world we can expect from recruting? Will we have a binary code like the matrix movie, in which we run a program, with algorithmic with the capacity to predict and select the ideal candidate for a certain position?

This subject of artificial intelligence influenced by an entire algorithmic engineering with the ability to predict makes me raise a series of questions and reflections.

Let's move away from the subject or how Artificial Intelligence can revolutionize the recruiting of people.

I remember that a considerable number of persons from, Generation Baby Boom to Generation X, were nurtured with science fiction films and science fiction literature.

Who has not seen or heard of Blade Runner, Star Wars, Dune, Fritz Lang's Metropolis or even Terminator (machine facing man). Many of the new trends and predictions that we have seen from the 20th century science fiction universe have become reality and banalitys nowadays to the new generations.

Automation, robotics, artificial intelligence is a reality, it is no longer a fantasy. Who doubts that soon we will have 80% of the entire logistics and transport sector automated, from loading, to autonomous transport on highways with trucks driven by AI and without human influence? Nowadays in aeronautics and in the navigation of a flight, what percentage of robotic is being used when much of the navigation is no longer manual and only performed on take-off and landing? How much will robotics revolutionize the healthcare sector, where surgeries are increasingly being performed with a scalpel in a robotic arm rather than the skilled hand of a surgeon?

Please note that this article is not intended to defend the advantages of artificial intelligence or robotics or to be taken as a warning of their risks. The question is made far from that intention. But as a recognition of this reality and awareness of what will be the differential values which separates man from machine.

First and foremost, let's assume a series of tendencies, starting by the first tendency in which we assume that jobs are changing (more than 70-80% are expected to change) to respond to this digital age, where data engineers, programmers, solution and IA developers, will be or are the professions of the future, as my fellow speaker mentioned.

For our second tendency let′s assume that these new professions will and already respond to a digital age where automation will occupy 90% of our day to day life, family, professional and recreation, where at every breath and heartbeat a data will be processed and it will feed a database on servers and cloud environments, feeding predictive models, as if it were the movie Minority Report, where the red ball falls?predicting the crime not yet executed.

For our third tendency, we can assume that each technological evolution that emerges on the market lives an increasingly shorter life cycle, and that the transformation curve is increasingly exponential which compels the organizational structures and people to adapt constantly. And by saying this we consider that whoever survives and adapts by default to this constant transformation will have in the future this flexibility in their DNA. In conclusion It will be a natural behavior.

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Last but not least, our fourth tendency takes us to the assumption that we are moving towards a society that increasingly has a franchising and a cartel structure developing to a constant plagiarism.

Although the transformation and innovation curve, previously mentioned in our 3rd tendency, presents herself as exponential, companies with greater purchasing power end up acquiring this innovation. After the adoption by the starter consumers, the plagiarims occurs by other competiters when the innovation reach to the follower consumers.

The consequence of this constant plagiarism whether we talk about product, service, process, or methodology, it’s the depreciation of the residual benefit between an offer and its competitors. Have you ever had that feeling in which you have to choose a telecommunications company, and all of them are giving you the same services and benefits (same 5G speed, promotions, etc.) and even a similar price?

How would it be any different if their technology is the same, their discount techniques are the same and even the marketing techniques are the same?

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In conclusion and taking in consideration all of these four tendency’s I consider that jobs are changing to respond to a new era, and this will change our society and our behavior tendencies, I also consider that our DNA adaptability will result in a natural selection and finally ?the network information circulates at a speed where the know-how can be purchase and where information is shared reducing the competitive advantage. “In an era where technology feeds on itself, technology makes more technology possible” to paraphrase Alvin Toffler, where will we have the differential value?

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From my perspective, the competitive difference in companies will be how they overcome the emotional void that this digital and binary evolution will create. Einstein already said, “it has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity”. I consider that the great differential value will be in the ability to generate empathy. This will be the rarest and most valued competence in the future, it will separate the difference between the machine, and the human being.

Let me share a small example of what I believe will be the future of the private health sector for instance, being taken by the splendor of robotics, automation, data exploitation, prediction, and client segmentation, but in an exaggerated parable and with a touch of black humor:

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Please enter in a time machine and move 50 years from now to the future and be faced with a new private medical care, 100% automated and without any human intervention, just like today we buy a book on Amazon and the only human we see in the whole process is the distributor.

So, in our visit to the future, we follow someone to the hospital who suffers from a symptom, such as abdominal pain several weeks. In the main entrance stands a terminal with a chat-bot. This machine programmed with a script will provide prescriptions for a battery of exams that are carried out in the same place and beside this chat-bot the patient will find a vending machine build with a VR environment.

Don’t forget the hospital guarantees 100% accuracy in the diagnosis and the report arrives digitally on the patient optical retine after a few minutes. Now we a have a diagnose. Unfortunately, the patient has a kidney failure.

The service is not yet complete and in this precise moment a list of options is offered to the patient in this case two options that includes: a pharmaceutical solution and hemodialysis although with a lower success rate, but with a more adjusted price. Reminding the patient to immediately schedule his full check-up in the following weeks, on the calendar available with multiple slots.

The second therapy involves a kidney transplant requiring hospitalization, with a higher cost, but offers 40% more chances of success than the first option. The kidney was found in a large database without any wait list and crossing the patient information with someone that had lost the life in a car accident in Bolivia. Due high cost of the surgical intervention and transport of the organ is offered a package of options for alternative means of payment, or to have a financial loan with multiple credit options or even adjusted to the insurance package that the patient has.

The patient decides for the transplant after being duly informed that it will be performed robotically without any human intervention, as well as all the risk factors simulated according to their clinical and genetic history, and nanotecnology information extracted thru a chip inserted in their nape. Prior to the surgical intervention, a digital pre-consent is signed thru a virtual screen in the arm of the patient.

In case the surgery goes wrong, God forbite we don’t give all the services associated, a funeral package is offered, with the option of ashes delivered to the patient’s family. Funny no? Funnier, 10 kms ahead, another hospital offers the same diagnostic, therapy, package prices but with the addition funeral plus, the option of tomb facing the sea.

Undoubtedly it is a parable, but is this reality so far from the reach of man? As Jane Goodall once said, "technology alone is not enough. We also must put our heart into it".

?So, what is missing element in this service, that could made the difference from a competiter to another?

- Empathy?

Yes, the machines will be here to do the job better than we can. The data will customize a product's lifecycle, segment the customer, candidates, and employees, and will adjust to their needs. However, automation and robotics will find it difficult to replace a 100% human characteristic and that will be critical and even more so in the future, in a society governed by algorithms, and increasingly disconnected the challenge will be to generate empathy and empathetic emotions. Paraphrasing Pope Francis, “the technological society has managed to multiply the occasions of pleasure but finds it very difficult to engender joy."

In my humble opinion, this is the true value and purpose and in which companies should invest in the future as a differentiating value, generating empathy and joy! Empathy and emotions move people, generates business, promotes customer retention, and retain employees.

This will be the most valued competence and the differential value in the future, the empathetic element, which applies equally to a salesperson, a consultant, a recruiter, a manager, influencer, or team leader.

People who understand people, will understand business.